In this chapter, we learn more about the people who have come to live in the sigma city. They're refugees from the war, and they're also members of the converging river, which is a tributary of the river that runs through the city. The narrator tells us that the world outside of the navy is full of problems. The ocean is rising, people are starving, and wars are going on all over the place. The whole world is faced with these problems, the narrator says. The city of sigma was built to solve all of these problems. However, the city didn't develop in the direction of the sigma navy. Some people wanted absolute control over the entire city and to become the ruler of the metropolis. Therefore, the commissioner, trekman, orchestrated the Sirius incident to eliminate his political rivals as well as foreigners who came after the technology. It caused a worldwide shortage of technology, and it allowed him sole influence in the parliament. This incident also brought a surge of refugees into the city, and foreigners and rival forces took advantage of this situation. The commissioner needed a way to keep everyone's loyalty, so he created a new type of robot, called p2. This robot can be fully controlled and can also blend in with the crowds. This was a great help to the commissioner because it allowed the robot to be hidden at all times. This is the kind of robot that trekman wants to avoid, since he wants to be able to control it.